Portrait of the Rev Principal Nicoll

This full-length portrait shows Nicoll (1770-1835) seated by a table with books, as the collector of the Ministers' Widows Fund for which he was an active campaigner. In 1814, Raeburn became a Royal Academician, and in 1822 when George IV made his historic visit to Scotland, the artist was knighted. He died a year later, having achieved supremacy in Scotland as the foremost portraitist of his age.